The Lame World of Real World D.C.

The Real World house is not hard to find.

(Flickr / dbking)

REAL LIFE
Running Into the Real World Cast
Washington, D.C.
MTV
Summer 2009

When I found out that The Real World Season 23 and I would be sharing my native city of DC for the summer, it blew my mind. Now, D.C., I know we’re too cool to let anyone think that we watch anything beside C-SPAN and 30 Rock. We wear nice suits and we walk like we’ve got somewhere important to be. We get pissed if you don’t “WALK LEFT STAND RIGHT” on the Metro escalators. But I grew up on MTV, and my stalking shame knows no bounds. So I searched the Internet to find where the Real World house was, had Twitter updates about their location sent to my phone, and may or may not have promised my friends that I would become a blurry face in their hot tub.

I first spotted the D.C. Real World cast while riding the Circulator. There they were, sitting on the curb of M Street outside Urban Outfitters in Georgetown. So, I texted my entire address book and as the bus drove by I thought to myself, “Alas! That was my chance.” But I was wrong. The next day I saw them at Third Edition. They were just standing around chatting with each other. No dancing. No bitch slapping. Just holding beer—cheap beer. When I talked to them, they were totally boring. The next week, my dad took me out to dinner at an eight-table (no, really) restaurant called Café Bonaparte in Georgetown, and two Real Worlders were sitting at the window table with a camera (which took up 1/8th of the restaurant) looming over them.

FYI, stalking them is effortless. They’re everywhere. But the beauty of train wreck-style drama is lost. The Real World is great because you get to see about a month of footage compiled into 30 minutes of debauchery, promiscuity, and meltdowns. At Café Bonaparte, I heard one RWer say to the other, “Let’s totally have a sushi night in the house!” Sushi night? This cast should be making poor decisions for my benefit. I miss the TV show. Watching them in real life is what I imagine a real reality show would be like. So… when do they stop acting polite?

[Editor’s Note: Three guys from the MTV Real World DC house attended last night’s Campus Progress / Human Rights Campaign event.]

2 out of 10 waivers you should not sign while inebriated.

-Becca Russell-Einhorn

This farmer rails against corporate farming, wears a cowboy hat for credibility.

(allmoviephoto)

FILM
Food, Inc.
Directed by Robert Kenner
Participant Media
Released: June 12, 2009 (limited)

Food, Inc. has been out for a little while now, but I finally got around to seeing it this week. As someone who hasn’t read the manifestos of Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, and Erick Scholosser—but has certainly read enough about them—I didn’t actually learn that much that’s new. This is, perhaps, because I come from a rural community. Many of the “shocking” practices about agriculture and livestock just aren’t that shocking to me because I’ve seen them with my own eyes. I am, perhaps, desensitized.

The film sure does come with some surprising facts (and equally cheesy graphics) for the unindoctrinated. Genetically modified seeds, patented and produced by one company, dominate more than 90 percent of what farmers grow. If public figures like Oprah say they won’t eat meat because of disease of practices, it’s considered libelous and they can be sued. The chicken you eat never sees light in its entire life and lives half as long as it did 50 years ago. And high fructose corn syrup is in pretty much everything you eat.

But the film, perhaps for the necessity of building a movement, didn’t get into the dicier food issues: the “organic” and “fair trade” labels aren’t always accurate, there is a real tension between the local food movement and the organic food movement, and international food production is a whole different ballgame.

My co-blogger Spencer Ackerman aggressively called the film underwhelming, but overall, I get what director Robert Kenner was trying to do. He’s trying to be today’s Upton Sinclair, and Food, Inc. is his version of The Jungle. He is trying to build a movement with his film. To his credit, and to the credit of other authors and activists, changing food policy is starting to gain some traction. People are starting to talk and think more critically about how our agriculture system comes with hidden costs. But the process will be slow, and some people still don’t care enough to buy local and organic food. Perhaps most tragically, some of them can’t afford to care.

7 out of 10 horrifying facts about the industrial food complex.

-Kay Steiger

Excusez-moi?

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Marie de Paris

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7 out of 10 safe and fun sexual encounters.

-Daniel Strauss

Kay Steiger is the editor of CampusProgress.org.

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